The Tea Party, replete with its arguable parallels to the days of this nation's Founding Fathers and their brave actions, soaked in red, white and blue, and driven by a virulent strain of misguided anger, is about to take its last breath. We can quibble over motives, party affiliations and the nuances of public policy, but ultimately there is only emptiness and no direction hiding behind the angry yelling, firearm waving and the incendiary condemnation of public officials.

The hallmark of any effective grassroots movement - whether it be for the advocacy of civil rights, to correct economic inequalities, or to even weigh in on matters of war and defense - is that it has a clearly defined, practical goal, something to achieve, and most importantly the means and feasible plans to achieve its goal. The Tea Party movement is woefully lacking all of these things.